Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Live Chat with Kelly Curtis

OK, so if you watched the Pearl Jam website closely yesterday you were able to make it into the chat room to talk with Kelly Curtis from 4 to 5pm ET. Because time was short, Curtis asked that topics be limited to the following items:

New Website - navigation + functionality

Store

Membership

Merchandise

DEEP Magazine

Ten Club Single

Tour

You can review the transcript here, but really, we weren't treated to any whoppers. Curtis asked for patience as they work on the new website. The only mention of the store and merchandise was that female Ten Club employees would like more women's clothing choices. Curtis confirmed that the Ten Club Single and DEEP Magazine are being worked on. He also confirmed that there will not be any more 2012 shows, but there will most likely be more shows in 2013 ("touring in 13... lots of us shows promise"). He also confirmed that Ed was feeling much better, but then again, we assumed as much since, at the time of the chat, Ed was 24 hours from taking the stage in Manchester, and no one had cancelled the show.

It is not really clear why Pearl Jam decided to have Curtis chat with the fans. There was really no new news, and to be honest, Curtis takes on a very defensive tone when facing an onslaught of fan questions ("touring is hard for this band.. we average 36 shows a year" or "if the band played many more than they do... then you would not get a unique show" or "jay z asked.. we said yes"). We could forgive that since, he recently found out that an employee had relieved him of over $500,000.

In this format, it's also unclear which questions he's answering. For example, he promised a future "blue ray deluxe package sometime soon," but what will be on that blu-ray? One would hope he was talking about the PJ20 Festival, but he also said, "no bootleg plan for pj 20 yet." Is Curtis really filming for Undercover Boss? Is Ed?

We really appreciate the band's efforts to say in touch with fans, but we can't help thinking that fans might feel heard more if the forum moderators compiled a short list of common or interesting questions for Curtis to answer with carefully drafted answers. Or maybe we're just bitter because we still miss the All Encompassing Trip.

Whichever it is, we're glad that the band is trying something. Thanks. Please don't stop. In the meantime, we'll see you on the road.